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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., condemned President Donald Trump’s plan to deploy U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to U.S. airports on Sunday.
Schumer made the comments while speaking on the Senate floor Sunday, saying Trump’s decision is “impulsive” and could make the situation at airports worse.
“Today, Donald Trump and [Tom] Homan are saying they will deploy ICE agents to airports starting on Monday. This is really disturbing. ICE agents who are untrained and have caused problems everywhere they’ve gone lurking at our airports. That’s asking for trouble, and it will certainly make the chaos at the airports even worse,” Schumer said.
“No one has any faith in ICE agents. They haven’t received training. They don’t know what it is to be a TSA person and do what you need to do,” he continued. “And the real problem here is they have no plan for using these ICE agents. Trump says, send them there. They send them there. And Homan says they’re still drawing up plans with less than a day’s notice. What is this? We know what it is. It’s another impulsive action by Donald Trump.”
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“Some idea pops into his head and he announces it. And then the people working for him, a few of whom do have some degree of talent and ability. Not many underlings. They have to rush to try and implement what they know is an idiotic plan,” he said.
The ICE deployment is Trump’s latest move in the battle with Democrats over funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Schumer and his allies have refused to approve DHS funding without reforms to immigration enforcement.
TSA agents across the country have gone more than a month without a paycheck, with no clear end in sight.
Trump first threatened to deploy ICE to airports on Saturday, demanding that Democrats “immediately sign an agreement” to fund DHS.
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Airports across the country have reported huge numbers of employees calling out sick or not showing up for work. More than 400 TSA employees have quit their jobs.
“On Monday, ICE will be going to airports to help our wonderful TSA Agents who have stayed on the job despite the fact that the Radical Left Democrats, who are only focused on protecting hard-line criminals who have entered our Country illegally, are endangering the USA by holding back the money that was long ago agreed to with signed and sealed contracts, and all,” Trump wrote Sunday on Truth Social.
Trump also predicted blowback from Democrats, saying they would complain “no matter how great a job ICE does.”
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